An army of skin-crawling caterpillars took over a Buddhist temple as Thailand enters its rainy season.

Footage shows thousands of wriggling larvae swarming the Wat Pa Ban Hua Fai temple in Udon Thani province on June 7.

The monks said the caterpillars were a massive inconvenience as they covered every inch of the floors, halls, statues, and garden on temple grounds.

One of the monks, Phra Boonkam Ajinjano, said: 'These caterpillars emerge every other year, but they turned up in unusually high numbers this year. I can't even walk to the refrigerator without having to sweep them out of the way.

'There are many Padauk trees around, so I think the caterpillars came out to eat their leaves. It is difficult to leave the temple or walk around since we monks don't want to step on them and kill them. We have no choice but to wait for them to become butterflies.'

A resident, Oradee Ponmanee, 61, said: 'The caterpillars aren't poisonous, but they will make you itchy if you touch them. The reason they emerged now is because of the rainy season. They probably came to eat the padauk leaves.

'We locals have grown used to them, but I'm worried about the temple visitors who might be scared, especially since there is a temple event this week. There are so many of them because neither the monks nor the villagers want to exterminate them. We will just have to wait until they cocoon.'